Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has launched a broadside against the opposition, claiming that "they just don't get it".
On the opening night of the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis, he said "the self-declared alternative government has a record and policies which pose a direct and immediate threat to high employment and economic growth".
Mr Martin also said he expected to make a decision on the Groceries Order, which bans below-cost selling, within two weeks. He told reporters he expected to be lobbied about it at the ardfheis.
The Minister also said the Government had "a very clear policy" for protecting and growing the hard-won economic success of recent years".
Taxes would be kept low. "We will not match the huge spending commitments of the opposition, because to do so would require the sort of tax increases which would reduce both employment and the revenues needed to pay for social services."
The Government would continue to run a responsible budget policy, and would continue to place the needs of enterprises - small, medium and large - high on its agenda.
Condemning the opposition, the Minister said: "It's not that they're wrong on a few things, they are wrong in every element of their basic approach.
"The reason for this is clear - they just don't get it. They simply do not understand the policies that have got us to where we are today and they have never understood the damage which their policies did to our country."
Mr Martin said that, on tax, "they opposed every one of our tax-cutting budgets. They even recently described them as having been unnecessary.
"They simply don't understand that the levels of tax which they imposed penalised work and actually reduced the money available for social services."
He continued: "On business, they have continually failed to understand that you have to be pro-enterprise in all of your policies. The levies they are imposing in their councils and their calls to rebalance tax against wealth creation show that they simply don't understand the role of government in supporting business."
He said Fine Gael's enterprise spokesman, Phil Hogan, got every forecast he made about the economy wrong. "He's so good at it that he is now known as Phil the Forecaster. Each year for the last three years Phil managed to forecast an imminent recession accompanied by huge increases in unemployment."
Reserving his greatest ire for the Labour Party, Mr Martin said it did not really matter who their spokesman was, because "Pat Rabbitte has banned anyone else from speaking on behalf of the party". He said: "As befits a former member of a Stalinist party, he believes that his word on every issue is final".
The Minister added: "Exactly what his economic policies are, he has refused to explain, beyond saying simply that they'll be great and that no one has the right to ask him to say any more."